British High Court Says N. Ireland Abortion Ban Violates Human Rights

Pro-abortion campaigners are already jumping on the fact that a narrow majority of judges have suggested that the law in Northern Ireland breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.

It is only permitted if a woman's life is at risk, or there is a permanent or serious risk to her mental or physical health.

British-ruled Northern Ireland is left as the only part of Britain or Ireland with such a restrictive regime, after voters in the Irish republic backed the removal of a ban in a landslide vote last month that sparked calls for change in the North.

Their Lordships made very clear that the current state of the law in Northern Ireland is "untenable" and their judgment can not be "safely ignored". We now need to discuss how to provide better support for women in these very hard situations rather than liberalising abortion laws.

Four of the judges said that outlawing abortions in cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality would likely contravene ECHR rules.

Sinn Fein, which backs calls for some change to the law, said the court's judgement made clear that the status quo was untenable when it came to cases of fatal abnormality and rape.

"The women of Northern Ireland deserve better, they deserve control over their bodies, they deserve not to be forced to court and talk about these issues in order to get government to listen".

"I think there are serious questions to be asked of the Human Rights Commission about the amount of public expenditure which has gone into this case when they ought to have known from the beginning that this was beyond their remit", he said. "As such, the court does not have jurisdiction to make a declaration of incompatibility in this case", the court said.

"It's unfortunate that human rights law, in the way that it's developing, doesn't acknowledge the fact that there is no right to abortion in global human rights law", she said.

"The analysis and comments from the court on the issue of incompatibility will be clearly heard by this House and politicians in Northern Ireland". The law also introduced a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment for having or assisting in an unlawful abortion. "Today I believe we have voted for the next generation", he said.

The referendum reignited a debate about Northern Ireland's law, with some calling for reform while others - including the biggest party, the Democratic Unionist Party - remain opposed to changing the law.

The push for the legalization of abortion in Northern Ireland is not a new campaign, and has gained traction with the overturn of an abortion ban in the Republic of Ireland only weeks ago.

"It is so incredibly important to lobby for life at this present point in time because of the stark threat to unborn children here as Northern Ireland faces a great deal of political instability", said Precious Life, a pro-life group in Northern Ireland, in August 2017.

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